


Themyscira

by chaucer345



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Disaster, F/F, It's kind of the point, No seriously there's no dudes, Romance, This fandom needed more lesbians, Transgender, no dudes, self discovery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-09-28 02:30:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10066451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaucer345/pseuds/chaucer345
Summary: Nick Wilde has had a rough... Well, life to be honest. Always trying to be what was expected, never standing up for what's right...To be frank, only recently has the fox even attempted to be honest.But when all males suddenly vanish from existence, she'll need both courage and honesty to make it through.An experimental story, we'll see how this goes.





	1. Wakey Wakey...

_Nick_

I was woken by a loud, rapid knock.

 _Carrots..._ I thought with more venom than was strictly necessary.

I knew this was coming. I'd been pretty vague with her last night, and being vague to Judy Hopps about your feelings was practically equivalent to begging her to show up at your door.

Making the interruption worse, I had been pretty sleepy recently.

I needed more blue pills. Speaking of which I popped one in, feeling the (purely psychological?) rush of progress... and the terror of being found out.

I followed it with a grey and told myself I couldn't keep it secret much longer. Not that I wanted to. It was just that I was-

That train of thought was interrupted by a painful, jarring, and all too familiar feeling of the door getting rammed open.

To my shock, I heard Officer Pennington from the hallway, her voice shaky. "Hopps..."

"Damn it, I have to check!" Judy's voice responded.

I rolled indignantly out of my bed and threw open the door to my living room.

Judy, standing by the ruins of my door, froze in shock. The elephant behind her mirrored her (I was amazed she could even fit in the hall).

I narrowed my eyes. "Yes, ha-ha, look at the fox in his underwear. Seriously Carrots, what the-"

Judy leapt into my arms and grabbed me in a bone crushing hug. "NICK!!!"

I blinked, thrown off by the adorable bunny clinging to me and sobbing.

 The situation was not helped when my friendly, but by no means snuggly co-worker  snagged the both of us to her chest and nearly made the phrase "bone crushing hug" literal. "Oh thank god you're okay!"

I heard a hiss from their radios and Francine dropped us fast. Judy whipped out her radio. "Lieutenant! We've got another officer! It's Nick!"

Fangmeyer's voice filtered through the radio. "Holy shit... Same protocol as before! Get him back to the station pronto."

"Yes Ma'am!" The rabbit snapped back.

"Okay!" I shouted. I'd had just about enough of this. "What the hell is going on!"

Judy and Francine exchanged a look.

Judy bit her lip. "You... Should look out the window."

I raised an eyebrow and turned around.

I didn't live in the fanciest part of city center, but it was far from a Happy Town slum. The rent was reasonable and it was filled with lots of families who were only slightly skeptical of their fox neighbor in blue.

I couldn't say it was perfect, but it certainly wasn't populated by a large crowd of women  running around knocking on each other's doors with photographs, clutching cell phones to their heads and shouting.

I didn't see a single male animal in the crowd.

Carrots put a paw on my shoulder. "Let's get back to the station."

#

Gnawing on coffee beans (my power was out) in the back of Francine's monstrous cruiser did little to improve my mood.

It didn't make sense. It was _insane_. "What? Why? _How?_ " I finally managed to stutter.

Francine winced, weaving between abandoned cars. "All excellent questions."

Carrots, still shaking, cracked open an overflowing case file. "As far as we can tell, at 1:30 AM today nearly all male mammals in Zootopia, and as far as we can tell, the planet, have gone missing."

I stared at my partner. "What." I looked out the window. "What?" I threw up my arms, my eyes bugging out like a fox possessed "WHAT!?"

Judy gulped. "What I just said. You are one of the last known male foxes in existence, or males period for that matter."

I felt my guts lurch. "Uh... About that-" I froze.

The Precinct One headquarters had seen protests before. It had seen panicked mammals. It had seen _riots_.

It had not seen an army of angry, terrified women being desperately held back by a tiny line of 100% estrogen fueled uniformed officers.

The car stopped. "The back." Francine said softly. "I'm going to park in the back..."

#

The back only took a small amount of screaming to get through, not that the inside of the station was much better.

I'd never seen so many female police officers at once. I certainly hadn't seen most of them in Precinct One.

More surprising than the clutter of people was the clutter of supplies. Multiple armories worth of firearms and pallets upon pallets of emergency relief kits were stacked in the work area as secure rooms overflowed.

But those supplies were guarded, and there was order to the chaos, because above it all, standing on the front desk and screaming orders to the room, was the hulking tigress named Lieutenant Danielle Fangmeyer.

She did a surprisingly good Bogo impression.

Our arrival was barely noticed in the madness.

Francine froze behind a desk. "So... Now what?"

I shrugged, defaulting to snark under pressure. "It's kind of the end of the world. To be honest, I planned to spend it getting drunk."

The room fell silent.

Nearly every woman in the room turned and stared at the male uniformed officer who'd just opened his big fat mouth.

Adhering to stereotypes, cheetah officer Katano was the first to react. "Holy crap girls! Wilde's okay!"

I was then immediately mobbed by an army (well, police force) of the women of precinct one who all wanted to hug, talk to, and/or rub themselves all over me.

I would be lying if I said this hadn't been a fantasy of mine at one point.

Reality was much more terrifying.

The sharp blare of an airhorn filled the station.

The crowd turned as the lieutenant let out an equally terrifying growl. "Yes, we are all happy Officer Wilde's okay. We are also _in the middle of a crisis_. There's a million terrified women out there and a hell of a lot of missing people and we are absolutely not going to let this city fall apart!"

She pointed to me. "Wilde! Chief's office! Now! Hopps, Pennington, back to search detail!" She returned to the crowd. "The rest of you have your assignments." She narrowed her eyes. "And if you give a single crap about this city, or any of the people who just vanished I expect you to do them."

That said, she marched up to the Chief's office.

The women reluctantly left my side and returned to work.

#

It felt weird being in Bogo's office with the chief absent, but in fairness what the recently promoted Lieutenant Fangmeyer lacked in looming stature was more than made up for by the presence of her impeccably sharpened claws.

She sat down with more than a hint of weariness. Now that I was up close I could see the bags under her eyes. "Wilde, I have a special assignment for you."

She threw a file on the desk. It was depressingly slim. "So far, we've found fifteen other males in the city and stashed them in protective custody."

I winced at her phrasing. "Uh... About that."

The tiger groaned. "Wilde, for the love of god, would you let me finish? I have a phone that's ringing off the hook, an army of terrified protestors, and a scant smattering of utilities workers barely keeping the climate wall working who all want to go home and find their husbands/brothers/boyfriends/dads instead of continuing to power the city. But you really can't help me with any of that right now."

She looked me dead in the eye. "What you _can_ do is convince those poor boys that we're starting to find people, and that we need them to stay put right now so they don't get torn apart by a mob. You are currently the only male officer we have, and you can sell light switches to the Amish, so you're perfect for the job."

I scratched the back of my head. "Listen I-"

She shushed me. "Wilde, I have every confidence in your abilities. I know you don't usually work under me, and we all miss the Chief," Her eyes grew harrowed and she looked away for a moment. "Believe me, I'm right there with you on that... but we have to rally together, protect the city in its time of need and-"

"DAMNIT, I'M A GIRL!" I snapped.

The tiger froze.

There was a long, long pause.

She turned to me. "What?"

I dug into my pocket and pulled out my estradiol pills and spironolactone (like hell I was leaving them at home). "I just started hormone therapy. I was going to come out to the office next week." I felt very meek, and very scared. "I'm not actually a boy."

The lieutenant's eyes darted from me, to the pills, to me again and a look of horror spread on her face. "Oh fuck..."


	2. Very bad ideas

_Samantha_

_Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay..._

I knew he wasn't though. That dumb TV, the one we'd found on the roadside and fixed up together? It didn't get much, but it got ZNN. Not that they had much to say other than the obvious.

They said the ZPD still existed. I was surprised how happy I was about that.

All the other channels were dead. I'd tried the Radio too, but I'd only picked up a couple panicked stations saying the exact same thing ZNN was.

My phone had no bars, not that it had stopped me from queing up a zillion texts.

I rubbed at the shaved in patches on my spotted fur and gripped my stomach. _Please be okay..._

There was a knock on the door. "Yo! Sammy! You in there?"

Okay that was about the last person I expected to hear. It shocked me out of my panic attack. "Lizzie?"

There was a groan. "Yeah, yeah, it's me. Now open up will you? We have clan biz."

I'm hate to say it, but it took me a minute.

It wasn't that I didn't love Lizzie (though if I ever put it that way she'd curb stomp me), and the Spots Clan... They were my family. They kept me as safe as I could be living on this side of Pack Street.

But I thought I was out. And even if I wasn't, considering what kind of hell the city was going through I couldn't imagine they'd be looking to make a score.

"Yo!"

"One sec!" I undid the two bolts and the chain and was rewarded with a hug from a grinning Lizzie. "Hey there girl!" She grabbed my arm and pressed our markings together. "Spots forever baby! You ready to own this city!" She paused, noticing the streaks on my face. "Shit girl, have you been crying or some shit? You look like Hell."

I raised an eyebrow. "Uh Lizzie, I don't know if you've noticed this, but the world is kind of... Ending." Crying was probably the most productive thing I'd done all day.

She waved her paw dismissively. "Naw girl, the city is _dying_ and everyone knows that's when us Hyenas go in for the kill." She pointed her thumb at her grin. " _Their_ world is ending. Ours is just getting started."

I... Didn't know what to think of that. "Okay... So what's the plan here?"

She threw out her arms (she always was one for drama) "What you think the plan is girl? There ain't no more big boys runnin' around thinkin' they's better than us just because they shoot sperm out of their clits. The entire city's ours for the taking! Let's stick it to 'em. Show them who's boss for once."

A part of me, a part buried very, very deep remembered eating out of a trash can while a polar bear in a suit pushed me to the ground

A little flame lit inside me...

But then I remembered what was happening and I froze. I couldn't make a score, I needed to find Charlie! "Lizzie, I'm not so sure-"

"Aw come on!" My clan sister rolled her eyes. "What, you worried about your baby daddy?"

I crossed my arms. "Charlie was more than just a-"

She groaned. "Yeah, yeah... Look, Charlie was a _guy_ , you know they ain't worth nothing."

I glared at her. "Say that again bitch..."

She held up her hands in defeat. But she smiled. "There's the Sammy I know. Look, look, I get it. You miss the guy and you want to find him, same as everyone who's got some piece of man meat on the side, but do you really think you're gonna find him cooped up in here? Come on, that shithead Mr. Big's stash is layin' wide open. Don't you tell me trashing his cushy nest wouldn't put a smile on your face."

She had... Actually several good points.

Besides, it wasn't like I wasn't crawling up the walls cooped up in here.

I smirked. "Let me get my shiv."

"That's my girl!"

#

_Judy_

"You know what, I couldn't care less that Nick's Gay." I said with a grin plastered on my face while the world burned around me.

Thankfully there was no literal burning. Apparently there were even fewer female firefighters than female police officers. I think the entire city had three functioning fire engines and that was only because Fangmeyer had hastily merged several crews.

Just like she'd merged the police force... And the utilities workers.

Heaven help us if we had to build something out of bricks because there was all of one goat and two hyenas that we found who did that.

Francine raised an eyebrow "What makes you think he's gay?" She was holding together surprisingly well all things considered. It was weird actually. I wondered if she was deep in denial. Man, that would suck.

"Well, clearly that's what stopped him from accepting my dinner invitation." I said, switching through the silent channels on the radio. I'd only found our chatter, some panicked station in Deerbrook County, and the one news channel the Lieutenant had pressed into service. I guess everyone else was just out getting coffee. Probably with my Dad, and my Brothers, and Clawhauser...

My stomach felt weird.

Francine nodded. She was sweating. "Y-yeah... I don't think that's it you know? I've caught him staring at my tits."

I laughed, loudly. "Oh yeah! So it can't be that. Well, I guess we'll talk it through. I mean I'm just glad we... I'm glad he..."

My blunt claws were punching holes in the fabric of the seat. "Francine can you pull over please?"

Francine slid her massive cruiser to the side and I hastily charged to the nearest storm drain. I then proceeded to empty the contents of my stomach while violently sobbing.

Francine put a warm hand on my back. "Judy..."

I turned back. She had tears in her eyes, but she wasn't making a sound. "It... It's going to be okay. It has to be."

I wiped at my red eyes and crawled up into her lap. The warm mountain that was her chest calmed my breathing.

I still felt horrible though. My limbs were locked tight in position. "We... We should really go. The city, it's..."

Francine pulled her phone from her pocket and punched in something with her trunk. "There. I've set a timer. Five minutes. The city can last for five freaking minutes while we deal."

I nodded, leaning into her as she wrapped her massive arms around me.

She smelled warm. Nice.

I laughed. "You know if Nick was here he'd be telling me how emotional rabbits are."

I felt Francine's chuckle more than heard it. "Nick _is_ here sweetie. When we get back to the station we can have him mock us as much as we want."

I smiled. "You think so?"

Francine grinned. "Judy, let me tell you, there are three things in the world you can always count on: Death, Taxes, and Officer Wilde being a complete asshole."

#

_Lieutenant Danielle Fangmeyer_

The sad, muscle-bound, male-sexed sheep girl wept. "I... I didn't *want* this! I just wanted to be me... To feel comfortable in my own..."

Officer Wilde hugged her tight and shushed her softly. "It's okay... You didn't cause this, you couldn't have."

"But I wanted to _know_!" The sheep cried. "I wanted to know for certain, I *prayed* that there would be some way to prove it, I..."

The sobbing consumed her again and she became incoherent. Wilde said a few more comforting words and lead her out of the conference room to Kii. She wasn't Clawhauser, but she wouldn't let them do anything to hurt themselves.

It was absolutely terrifying.

I mean it was already insane, but this was just salt in the wound.

Every single "boy" left over, every single one... They were girls too.

I indulged in the tiniest of twitches.

I really missed the Chief.

I knew when he pinned on my new Epaulets that I was in for _some_ headaches, but being a Lieutenant was a hell of a lot more paperwork and public relations than patrols. I thought maybe being behind a desk would reduce my stress, maybe even patch up my relationship...

I'd been dead wrong on both counts, but it had been a nice thought while it lasted.

Wilde returned to me and gave a well intentioned, but obviously exhausted salute. I don't know if he... _She_. Wilde was a girl. I don't know if she was more emotionally drained or caffeine deprived, but right now I only had the means to fix one problem.

I saluted back. "C'mon, we spared some generator power for Coffee. Lord knows we've earned it."

She nodded. The fox was oddly quiet. Usually when I'd interacted with her before she'd been loud all the time. Cracking jokes, and prancing about like she owned the place.

Was that all part of her facade? Or was she just messed up from everything that had happened?

I found myself rather uncharitably angry at her. She just _had_ to wait until the world ended to come out didn't she? She just had to rob me of the hope that...

I forcibly retracted my claws. There was hope. Just because we hadn't found him in 12 hours didn't mean he wasn't somewhere.

I really hoped it wasn't at the bottom of a ditch.

I chastised myself by pouring Nick the first cup. It had been sitting on the burner far too long, and it's not like the station's beans were anything special, but I had to say, lapping up a quart of hot coffee was probably the highlight of my day so far.

Wilde joined me on the Breakroom's stiff couch. "So... I guess we have new information."

I nodded. "The disappearances not being biologically based is interesting."

To my surprise, Wilde's expression hardened. "That's not necessarily true. Transgender women have feminized brains. You can pick it up on an MRI scan. This could easily still involve biology."

I held up my paw, conceding her point. "Fair... but it doesn't change my orders. Someone needs to guard those poor girls and frankly right now you look too male to not get into serious trouble out there."

She wilted at that statement. "Whatever I can do to help."

I groaned. "Jesus fucking Christ Wilde... Look, I get it. You had this big issue and now you're being asked to table it because the whole world's gone to hell. But in case you haven't noticed, we now have a serious existential threat to the entirety of mammal kind, so would you horribly mind if we dealt with your gender identity issues when the city _wasn't_ about to tear itself apart?"

She nodded, blankly. "That's fair."

I half growled. I did not have time to deal with all this emotional shit. "Oh for fuck's... Wilde 90% of our remaining officers are _lesbians_ okay? Including me! It's not like I don't get that huge shifts in your identity aren't a big deal, but right now literally everyone has personal shit and whatever else you are, you're a cop first and foremost. Right now we need to save the world."

I sighed, looking down at my paws. "We can save ourselves later."

She looked up to me... And she smirked. "Wow, you really _should_ have your own line of motivational greeting cards."

I laughed.

It felt wrong that I wasn't snapping at her.

God I missed the chief.

#

_Fabienne Growley_

The lights were sub-par, I only had two camera angles, and the crew all wanted to leave...

Frankly I did too.

But dang it, I was still getting reports in from City hall and the ZPD. Even if I had an intern as a news director and an aspiring lighting tech running my cameras I wasn't about to stop broadcasting for anything short of a nuclear launch.

Which may or may not have been on the table...

Fortunately I was nothing if not capable of detaching myself from the subjects I reported on and frankly right now that was the best thing I could do.

"Images continue to pour in from across the globe, where riots and panic has swept through many of the cities. Acting Zootopia Mayor, Sally Hayston has reported that the ZPD has mobilized and is providing emergency relief. ZPD Lieutenant Danielle Fangmeyer of Precinct One reports that they will be providing transport to any and all utilities workers and emergency relief personnel to their stations, and that an investigation is underway to find the missing persons. All non-essential persons are advised to stay indoors until the exact nature of the crisis has been discovered."

I heard some sort of sound from below me. I shrugged it off, probably some pipe issues.

"Meanwhile, we have received scattered reports that several community organizations have, in defiance of this advisement, organized search parties in an attempt to personally locate-"

There was a crash. The door to the broadcast studio slammed open and a rhino woman carrying a heavy pistol burst into the room. "HANDS UP! NOBODY FUCKING MOVE!"

We complied.

The rhino snorted, clearly enraged. She snapped her gun to the camerawoman. "Keep that thing running."

The Deer behind the camera nodded hastily.

She walked right up to me and I pressed my hands high into the air. Sweat was pouring down my forehead.

The Rhino turned to the camera "Attention Zootopia! You are going to find my baby, David Hornson, right _fucking_ now!" She pressed her gun to my temple. "Or I am going to blow her head off..."

 

 

 


	3. Reception

_Officer Barbara Longclaw_

I grunted impatiently as the squirrel eyed the cell tower up and down. It was way too late for this.

Or early I guess... If you were diurnal. Look, I don't know, all I know is that my pack fucking needed me and that stupid tiger who was _apparently_ in charge now had crawled all the way up my ass to get me to work.

And what had she done? What terrible orphanage fire robbery did she kick me out of bed to stop?

She put me in a car with a god damn squirrel in a hard hat and had us running around fixing the fucking cell reception. The _cell reception_! Like Angry Birds was what we needed right now.

...

Okay look, the rational part of me got why this was important, alright? Communication is good, let's you call an ambulance or us girls in blue I guess. But I'd left my poor beta at home organizing a search for the half of my damn pack that was missing and I here I was 'serving the city' by running around patching wiring.

 Seriously, we had the fucking power up! It should have just been a matter of flicking a switch.

"There!" The squirrel said suddenly, scurrying up the tower with ease. She pointed to a dented... access panel? I dunno, I don't speak nerd. "Someone must have winged it when this mess started."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay puffy tail, whatever, just get it working so we can move on."

"I have a name you know! It's Jenny!"

"Sure. Whatever."

The squirrel grumbled. "And here we... are? Oh who freaking wired this!"

I shrugged. "The lowest bidder?"

The squirrel let out an indignant squeak. "Well obviously! What the... These aren't even color coded properly!"

I tilted my head. "Can you still fix it?" If she couldn't, we were in trouble. She was the only cell tower climber we'd found who would work with us.

"Yeah, yeah... Just... Give me a second. Let's try this!"

#

_Three minutes earlier_

_Fru-Fru Big_

Daddy had expected a lot from me.

He had expected my discretion, he had expected me to keep my grades up, but most of all, he expected me to keep my paws clean.

I wondered how disappointed he would be to see me dragging a wolf sized pistol into his office while shushing little Judy Junior in her papoose.

"Shh... Shh... It's okay sweetie. Mommy just has to dispose of  some evidence." I stacked the gun with the others that had actually been fired at some point (they had scratch marks on them in so we would know to dump them when things got hot, and there were more than enough missing person's cases to go around to get a warrant for anywhere).

I pushed the stack of guns into the trap door and watched as the current flitted them through the freezing ice caves where all of our family's trash went. Judy's cries turned into sniffles as I snuggled her close. "Shh..."

To be honest I wanted to join her. Dad was gone, Koslov was gone...

My sweet Connor was gone...

I bit my lip. Damn it, I was a shrew! The most ruthless, determined mammal on the planet, and I was not going to take this crap sitting down.

I considered my options... The truth was, I wasn't going to be able to haul away most of guns in the armory, many of which were illegal, and I didn't have the number of any female 'business associates' who could help me.

Not that it would do me much good with the phones down. I checked my bars. Still nothing.

I sighed. At least the power was back on. I'm not sure I could have even opened the doors without them, not to mention we would freeze to death.

Little Judy put her paw on my shirt and tugged, demanding attention. I ruffled her fur and forced a smile.

I just needed to pretend everything was okay for her sake... I was good at that.

I cooed at her. "It's okay little one, we'll get-"

There was a crash, followed by the tinkle of broken glass.

My ears twitched towards it. _The door!_

A voice came from the hall. "Jesus Christ Edna... What? Did it have an opinion?"

"Oh eat my asshole Lizzie, it worked. And not a guard in sight..."

I hugged Judy tight to my chest and started jogging. Panic room. I had to get to the panic room.

Unfortunately, babies are rarely happy when you charge away with them while squeezing for dear life. I less saw than felt her face scrunch up.

_Please no, please don't-_

"WAAAAAAAHHH!!!" My baby cried out in confusion.

"... What was that?"

_Shit, shit, shit!_

Fortunately, a girl has to keep her figure and I spent plenty of time in the wheel. I slid my crying baby into the panic room and mashed desperately at the properly sized door seal button. A hyena in a do-rag clutching a Bowe knife appeared at the door just before a ton of tempered steel slammed down between us.

I immediately started shushing my baby.

Because priorities.

My smile was still plastered on but my mind was racing to keep up. Of course, the Spots would still be active! Two bit low lives if our most wet behind the ears enforcer was here!

But... They weren't here. There was just me, and a baby, and a big metal cage surrounded by creatures that crunched bones with their teeth for fun.

I felt a very unladylike sweat forming under my fur.

As Judy slowly calmed down, the panic room's security mikes filled the room with the vandal's chatter.

 "Crap, girls we've got a Big in the building. She sealed herself in some sort of... Metal thingy."

"It's called a safety room dumbass. Yo, Biglet! You feel like cooping yourself up in there, more power to ya!  Seeing as how all your guards up and left, we'll just help ourselves to whatever you got stashed here and be on our merry way... Sammy, watch the door. The rest of you-"

And then something absolutely magical happened.

All our phones chirped to life.

#

_One Minute Ago_

_Judy_

I finally climbed out of Francine's arms.

We'd stayed past her alarm... I don't know how much past, but our shadows were different.

I picked up the radio, "We're fine Dispatch... Just needed to take a moment."

Ki made an uncomfortable noise. "Uh... Okey dokey Judy, but we like super-duper need everyone to be on their A game right now. I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but we *super* need to find more dudes now."

I bit my lip. Just what I needed right now, another mystery I didn't know how to handle. I forced a bit of jauntiness into my voice. "Copy that Ki, we're on the Job. Dude patrol over and out."

I flicked the radio off. Ki was alright, but I really missed Clawhauser. I turned to Francine, who was wiping up her face with a handkerchief the size of a table cloth.  She folded it up and stuffed it in her pocket. "Okay... Back in the cruiser I guess."

I managed a small smirk. "Ready to make the world a better place?"

She snorted. "Wouldn't be very hard right now..." She tilted her head. "Well, I guess it would be, but-" She groaned. "You know what I mean."

I snickered, hopping up and grabbing the oversized cruiser's door handle. "Don't worry, Nick's still with us, it's not like you need to pick up the slack or anything."

She pulled her door open with ease (show off) and fastened her seatbelt. "You know, I am surprisingly happy about that."

I finally managed to slip the door open and plop myself in my booster seat. "Why surprisingly?" If there was tension between Nick and Francine it was news to me.

 The elephant looked away. "I mean, don't get me wrong, Nick's a good guy and all, but he can get a little... Fake, sometimes."

I raised an eyebrow. The elephant continued. "I mean, it's like he's a great guy, but he really doesn't want you to _think_ he's a great guy. Plus it feels like he has a lot of secrets. Like, there's just so much he's not talking about that you never know quite where you stand with him." She turned to me. "I think that's why you like him so much. He opens up when you're around."

I looked out at the road. "I thought so too..." My ears fell. "Until he shut me out."

It was a tiny issue honestly. A petty, minor problem.

Which is, of course, why I was focusing on it.

Francine was more than happy to follow along as she started the car. "Well, again, he's not gay. The tits don't lie."

I made an uncertain noise. "I mean, they are pretty spectacular, maybe you're just an exception."

Francine leaned back and batted her eyes. "Why Judy, I didn't think you-"

And then the ringing started.

It wasn't just my phone, it wasn't just Francine's phone, it was _everyone's_ phone, for as far as my little rabbit ears could hear.

I snatched my carrot phone up and shoved it to my ear. "Mom?!"

To my surprise, it wasn't her. Of all people, Fru's was on the line. "Judy! Hi... I know you must be really busy today, but I could really, really, _really_ use your help."

I blanched. "Oh gods, what happened? Is little Judy okay? Are _you_ okay?" It suddenly occurred to me how very, very small the citizens of little Rodentia were and how badly the city was doing.

"Oh, Judy's fine... me too, but we're sort of stuck in the Tundra town mansion's panic room... You see, a bunch of hyena gangsters showed up uninvited, and I _may_ have left the door open to a room with a lot of very dangerous things in it, which, for the record, I was completely unaware-"

And then the phone cut out.

#

_Present_

_Officer Barbara Longclaw_

Sandra was panicking, I needed to take control. "Okay, you just need to-"

My phone cut out.

"Ow! Fuck!"

I turned to the squirrel. "What!? What happened!?"

She was clutching at her arm while sitting on the tower. "I cut myself!"

I growled. "Uh, yeah! I can smell that! I mean what the hell happened to the phones! You had it working! Go back! Go back!"

The Squirrel backed up. Her fur slicked down in fright. "Um- I- I..."

A hundred lessons in etiquette around prey drilled into me by my mother suddenly made themselves known. I lowered my hackles, took three deep breaths, and put on a smile. "Miss... Um, Miss..."

"Jenny." She supplied.

"Jenny! Right..." The smile became slightly more strained. "I'm very sorry if I frightened you, but I assure you, if your wound was serious it would be bleeding much more profusely."

She curled up even more. "How do you know how much I'm bleeding?"

 _I'm just a master of diplomacy aren't I..._ The smile dropped. "Look, I'm a wolf, okay? I can smell it. And since you're barely poked, can you please just fix the damn phones? Seriously. Lives could be at stake."

She shook herself. "Yeah, you're right. Okay... Hang on a sec. I think I just jostled something loose when I got cut so, I just need to- Yeagh! "

She leapt back, barely catching hold of the side of the tower as an absolutely gigantic wasp's nest fell off the back of the panel and shattered on the ground.

The residents sounded very angry.

 _Oh shit._ My fur slicked. "The cruiser! Quick!"

#

_Lieutenant Danielle Fangmeyer_

Ki burst into the conference room. "Lieutenant! Hopps just radioed in and-"

"Is she in immediate physical danger?" I asked.

The cheetah blinked. "Um... No, but-" 

"Then it can wait." I turned to the... Well, _grizzled_ Grizzly bear who was currently in charge of our SWAT teams. "I want an elephant SWAT officer on every exit."

The bear (Officer Fisher, I think) narrowed her eyes. "Ma'am, currently we only have two SWAT teams, two *untested* SWAT team mind you, and none of the officers in them are elephants."

I  narrowed my eyes right back. "Then take four patrol officers and dress them up in riot gear. Right now, appearances matter." It was why I was pulling back so many patrols. I eyed the feed in front of me. The rhino was shouting, but Fabienne Growly was still alive...

Considering the entire city was watching, she needed to stay that way.

I turned to the Elk on the other side of the table. "Special Agent Kleiner, has she responded to any of our calls yet?"

She shook her head. "Our Negotiator has yet to get through... Though honestly that's just because there isn't any phone near the set and the cell network is still down, so she hasn't heard anything other than the megaphone outside... And that only faintly."

I let out a breath. Damn it, what was taking Barbara so long...? But there was nothing for it, of course. "Okay." I said, "I'm going in."

The entire room started.

Ki was the first to react. "Lieutenant are you nuts! You're all that's holding the city together right now!"

"Not to mention," Kliener interjected. "Your negotiation training is years out of date."

 _It's not that old you damn faun..._ I grunted. "Your concerns are noted, but this isn't something we can send just anyone into. Right now the whole city is watching and it needs to know that someone is holding it together. And since City hall has yet to put itself back on its feet..." I shook my head. "There's no one else to do it." I tilted my head, something important occurring to me. "Besides, I have a trump card to play here." I pulled out my wallet, and showed it to them.

Their eyes widened.

Kliener regained her voice first. "That... That could work."

Ki gripped the files she was holding tightly. She looked at me, utterly without words. "Danny..."

I pushed myself to my feet. "I'll get my vest. You two meet me in the motor pool."

I brushed myself off. "Oh, right, and Ki, what was it Hopps had to report? Another potential male?"

Her ears curled back.  "Not exactly..."


	4. Coming Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to /u/empirebuilder1 for beta reading!

_Officer Barbara Longclaw_

_Shit, shit, shit!_

I bolted for the cruiser, but the wasps were pouring out fast, gaining on me.

Jenny had darted down like a bolt of lightning and was running like a woman possessed, but the swarm was faster.

I don't know if it was the alpha in me or a death wish, but I spun around and snatched the squirrel up by the scruff her neck, running for dear life the second I had her in my claws.

I tossed her in the cruiser... And then spotted one of those fuckers on my jacket.

I let out a shout and tore off my outermost layer, tossing it away before that nightmare could get to me. Then I leapt into the cruiser and slammed the door shut.

I looked around, making damn sure that there weren't any of those bugs inside... and then I let out a sigh of relief. "Oh gods... That... That was messed up." I grew the slightest of smirks watching the wasps pile on the car. _Try to get in here you little shit-stains!_

Jenny nodded still looking more than a bit stunned.. "Yeah, I'll say. Um, Thanks. At my size those things-"

I grinned, "They'll mess you up what good. I know the feeling." I closed my eyes, still shocked at the rush of fear and  my lapse into heroism. This job was getting to me.

The Squirrel smiled. "So what do you say we blow this joint and come back with some bee-keeper suits and a flamethrower?"

I smirked. "Girl, you read my min-" I froze.

The squirrel blinked. "What?"

I looked out the window. Far away from the car, in my jacket pocket, were my keys.

My blood ran cold.

Jenny followed my gaze. Her fur slicked. "Well... You have your radio right?"

It was also in my jacket.

She reached for the cruiser's radio.

It was powerless without the engine running.

The squirrel's eyes went wide. "Oh sweet acorns..."

#

_Lieutenant Danielle Fangmeyer_

I clicked off the radio. Ki tightened my flak jacket and looked up at me. "Any luck with Hopps?"

I sighed and shook my head. It was _Hopps_ after all. Trying to talk her out of playing hero was like talking to a brick wall. And as good as she was at quoting regulations, she was even better at adhering to the letter of them while ignoring the spirit.

For all that, I could hardly blame her. Her goddaughter was inside. And with all my officers busy handling bare minimum patrols and an extremely public hostage situation...

 All I could do right now was wish her luck and pray.

"You know you don't have to do this, right?" Ki said, adjusting my straps.

I smirked. Maybe Hopps wasn't the only one with a Knight in Shining Armor complex. "Ki, we've been over this. I'm the right person, in the right place, at the right time."

She stepped back and crossed her arms. "You have other things to worry about."

I shook my head. "Ki, you've known me for two years. I'm not going to let the city crumble around me just because I need a good cry. Besides, this _is_ for the other things." I looked away. "This is for everything."

For a moment, it looked like the Cheetah was going to argue with me... Then she just shook her head and pinned on my microphone. "I hope you're right."

I smiled ruefully. "Me too."

#

_Samantha_

"So... How old is she?" I asked the wall.

*Buzz* "Only eight months... Seriously, I knew you Spots were low,  but holding a baby hostage is just sick. I hope you're proud of yourself."

I narrowed my eyes (I had no idea if the cameras could see it). "Hey, I'd be more than willing to get her out of here if you'd just open the damn door."

"I sooo... Trust you enough to do that." Came Big's voice. "I'm absolutely going to put my child's life in the hands of Spots street trash."

I growled. "If we're trash it's because _you_ threw us away." I gestured to the room. "Look around you. You're a fucking queen in an ivory tower, thumbing your nose at us dirty peasants and letting your strong men beat us down. Do you know how often your goons put my friends in the hospital? Do you know how many people they _killed?_ "

The Biglet huffed. "I can't believe it... A Spot is giving me a lecture on morality. Newsflash sister, you're just as bad as me! What, were you out sick when your little gal pals dragged Victor around the city chained to the back of a truck?"

I winced. "That... That was a bad scene."

It still gave me nightmares.

"He had a wife you fucking Molly! Emphasis on had!"

My eyes widened. "What? I thought-"

"What? You thought you saved him? Don't think I don't recognize your face, _hero_. Did you really think that by dragging a bear who literally had his back paws worn off to the hospital that you did him a favor? All that did was prolong his suffering."

She was fucking with me. Sure he hadn't made it, but I gave him a chance. I mean, our Clan Master had been so pissed I still had scars all down my back, so that had to mean it was the right... thing...

Something clicked.

I looked down at the blade in my hands. "It's never going to stop is it?"

There was a pause. "What?"

I sat down against the far wall, pulling my legs in close. "We kill you, you kill us... And none of us ever get to _leave_."

I looked up at the camera. "I have a job you know. A real one, at a pizza place. I had to beg to get it, but it's real. I have it. And I have an apartment, and a guy..." I clutched at my chest. "I even have a kid on the way."

The shrew gasped. "You... You're doing this crap _pregnant_?"

I stared at the floor. "Why not... You're doing it with your child in your arms."

There was a long, long pause.

"We need to quit."

"Yeah. Yeah, we do."

"Our families will kill us."

"Our children will thank us some day."

"I... I've tried to quit before."

"Yeah. Me too."

"..."

"Freeze! In the name of the law!" Came a shout from the next room over.

I looked up at the camera. I smiled the saddest smile the world had ever seen. "Guess we just have to keep trying."

I put down my knife, wiped it off, and made my way to the other room with my hands in the air. "The kid's fine. We surrender."

#

_Cynthia Hornson_

The lights were hot. Why were the lights so hot?

I kept Vince's revolver pressed to the newscaster's face.  My arm was getting tired. It didn't matter. Someone knew something about my baby. They had to come forward eventually.

Maybe I should have set a time limit or something.

Gods, the lights were hot.

I heard footsteps behind me. I grabbed hold of the big cat and swung my gun around.

To see another big cat, this one in a police uniform. "Hello Cynthia. Can I call you Cynthia?"

I gripped Fabiene more tightly. she squirmed. "Don't come any closer!"

The big cat (a tiger, I think) froze. She held up her paws. "I'm not here to hurt you."

I snorted. "Yeah, sure. Go ahead, give your little 'it doesn't have to be like this' speech huh? I talk down a hundred druggies in the ER with the exact same one." I pulled back the hammer of the gun. "You're just here to help right? Just want me to settle down so I can let you put a needle in me? Well that's not _happening_."

I glared at her. "All I care about is finding my son. So unless you know who took David, you can just sit the hell down and join this little party."

The tigress shook her head. "I wish I knew who took him. I really do."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh that's so comforting. You're such a wonderful fucking defender of the people, huh? Damn it, I am his mother! He is my baby..."

The tears were starting again. "I was holding him... and then he was just gone." The gun was shaking. "Do you have any _idea_ what that's like?"

She nodded. And then she did something I didn't expect. She reached slowly into her uniforms pocket, and she pulled out a photo. "Yes. I do."

It was a picture of her and another tiger... Standing over a little cub in a baseball uniform.

My heart caught in my chest.

#

_Samantha_

A single, tiny rabbit in a police uniform was pointing a pistol at my Clan sisters.

They were pointing pieces back... And smirking.

Lizzie narrowed her eyes. "Wow Sammy, way to puss out at the first sign of trouble."

"Dick out." Tammy corrected, though it sounded more like 'deek owt' in her thick accent.

Lizzie groaned. "Tams, we've been over this. The last time I said that, a dude actually whipped his dick out. We're in Zootopia, so could you please show just a teensy bit of restraint?"

Tammy's expression remained cold. "Sure, just as soon as you show some pride in your species."

"Ooookay!" The rabbit interjected. "As much as I'd love to keep listening to this fascinating discussion of your sexist, genitalia based customs, you all need to put your weapons down right this second and put your paws behind your heads."

Lizzie snorted. "Seriously? Girl, I could use you as a damn loofah and we're just as strapped as you are. I dunno what kind of super cop you think you are, but y'all are the one who needs to drop it."

The rabbit didn't waver. "Any other apocalypse, you might be right, but you've made a crucial error."

Lizzie tilted her head. "Really now? And what's that."

"Ignoring the elephant in the room."

"Hello!" Said the elephant.

#

_Cynthia Hornson_

I froze. "You... You're-?"

"A mother too, yes." she said. She put the photo away.

I lowered the gun. "Then... Then what are you doing here!?" I snapped. "Why the hell do you care about a stupid reporter when your baby is missing! You... You're a cop! You actually know how to find people! How are you...?"

She held up a paw. Her eyes were shimmering. "I'm here, because this is a turning point. I'm here because neither of us is going to find our babies if we tear each other apart." She looked down. "I'm here because I can't bring him home unless he actually has a home to come back to. And I am never going to find him, or anyone else if the city can't pull itself together." She met my eyes. "None of us are going to get through this alone."

I raised the gun back up. "But someone did it! They had to have..." I winced. Why were the lights so hot?

The tigress let out a breath. "Cynthia, I know you're scared. We all are. But I need you to think about this. If someone did it, if someone knows something, then they have torn a billion babies from a billion mothers who care just as much as we do."

She raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think, that someone who could do _that_ would give two whiskers over what happens to _Fabienne_ Growley?"

I looked at the terrified cat in my arm. She'd actually wet herself at some point. She... She was looking at me like I was some kind of monster.

I don't know how I hadn't noticed that before.

#

_Samantha_

I'd like to say I saw something before she tackled me, but one moment I was standing and the next I was In the air, unable to breathe.

My heart was pounding a mile a minute. How could someone that big be that quiet!?

I'd barely registered what was happening when the bunny was on us. She kicked the guns out of my clan mate's limp hands and cuffed us. Once we were bound and muzzled, the elephant tossed us to the ground.

The rabbit hopped up on her shoulder and they both loomed over us like angry gods. "Who else is with you?"

A shot rang out. The rabbit flew off the elephant's shoulder and fell to the ground.

"Me." Came the Clanmaster's voice.

Karen smirked at the top of the stairs. While the elephant ran to her fallen comrade.

My Alpha dropped her pistol and raised... Holy crap, was that a minigun? "You can just sit tight officer. I think this weapon is just your size."

The elephant was frozen. But I don't think it was from the gun.

I looked to the limp rabbit, then to my alpha. "Karen, are you nuts!? You just killed a cop!" It just slipped out. I knew it was out of turn, but...

This was too much.

She laughed, long and hard. "Sammy, you're still not getting this are you? There are no cops anymore. There's no mayor, there's no police chief..." She lined up her sights. "Their world is dead. And today? Today 's the day we show these scared little girls who's _really_ in charge."

She pulled the trigger.

The ammunition belt fell off.

She looked down. "Wait a minute, was that supposed to go in the other-?"

And then the elephant trumpeted in furious rage, and smashed her into the ground.

#

_Cynthia Hornson_

I turned back to the policewoman. Suddenly the lights weren't so hot. In fact, I felt very, very cold. "Then what... What are we supposed to do?"

"First, you put the gun down."

I put it down.

The officer smiled. "You see? We're already making progress."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
